Hach’s DNA with Denton Slovacek

Denton Slovacek:

Water quality is different things to different people. And as a company, we understood that early on and actually started developing products. Initially, yes, it was a drink, it was a test kit for drinking water. But very specifically, Clifford, early on, developed a better method for measuring the turbidity or the clarity of water. And that became a huge foundational technology for us, because when the EPA came out with the Initial Water Act in the seventies, one of the primary things they do is test filtered drinking water for turbidity, which indicates how well that water's been treated. And of course, that Hach was sitting there with the technology for this. And of course, that became very, very important and still is in the whole drinking water industry.

Stacey Flax:

Today, we are going to hop into the Hach time machine and dive down into the Hach DNA over the years with our guest, Denton Slovacek. Denton, thanks for joining us today.

Denton Slovacek:

Thank you. I'm glad to do this.

Stacey Flax:

Awesome. So going back to the evolution of DNA at our organization, we started with water testing kits and for a very specific market. So you, Denton, have been with the company for so long. In a couple of sentences, tell me a little bit about how that's evolved. And then, also, why should people even care?

Denton Slovacek:

Okay, sure. Well, water quality is a relative term, correct? We have water quality from the standpoint of potable to drinking water. There's certain things you have to know about that water, but there's also the water quality of wastewater treatment. There's water quality we need for industrial waters. In case of power plants, they have to have extremely pure water. So does the computer industry. So water quality is different things to different people. And as a company, we understood that, early on, and actually started developing products. Initially, yes, it was a drink, it was a test kit for drinking water, but eventually, became kits for testing ambient waters, like lakes and rivers. Later on, industrial waters, waste waters. Doing all of those things and evolved from test kits on up to laboratory instruments. And then, even in the fifties, we were developing some online instrumentation, for an example, to measure chlorine in drinking water.

But very specifically, Clifford, early on, developed a better method for measuring the turbidity or the clarity of water. And that became a huge foundational technology for us, because when the EPA came out with the Initial Water Act in the seventies, one of the primary things they do is test filtered drinking water for turbidity, which indicates how well that water's been treated. And of course, Hach was sitting there with the technology for this. And of course, that became very, very important. And it still is in the whole drinking water industry. But developing a lot of products, we've evolved along the way, but very often, Hach was ahead of the game with some of its technology. So when water quality became important for EPA and all that, we, in a lot of ways, already had a lot of the products in place.

Stacey Flax:

So if I go out to a restaurant and drink a soda, for example. Hach had a role in that?

Denton Slovacek:

Of course. Because that soda is going to start out with water, they're going to mix the syrup with. That water's going to go through all kinds of purification processes, before it becomes part of that soda. And again, being able to track the quality of that water, people use Hach products for that.

Stacey Flax:

Water quality is so important. I remember, I'm from Greenville, South Carolina, so we have a major river basin there, the Reedy River. And growing up, I remember driving by, and there were days where the river ran green or blue or pink. And I remember asking as a child, "Why is the river a color?" And my father explaining to me that it was the industrial dyes that were not regulated at the time. So not only has Hach evolved over the years, not only has our organization evolved over the years, but water quality has too.

Denton Slovacek:

Absolutely. Our whole concept of water quality's changed a lot. Again, early on, it was, how safe is the water to drink? Correct? And then, a little bit about the overall quality of the ambient waters, lakes and rivers. But again, with the water quality acts and all that, and really cleaning up our natural waters from wastewater effluent, and all that has become a huge thing. And Hach has been there all along, with the correct products for doing this type of thing. So a customer can accurately measure and, therefore, make a decision and then, manage that particular issue.

Stacey Flax:

A lot of times, when I turn the faucet on and get my water to drink, I don't think, being in the water industry, I do think a little bit more about it. But before I entered the water industry and got a better understanding, I would just turn the water on, take it for granted, drink it, never crossing my mind that there's so much work and testing, that goes into it, to make sure that that's safe to drink. And you mentioned how the testing has evolved. We still hear today. Just a couple of months ago, there was a news article about an area that had to stop their drinking water supply, because there was an issue.

And they told people not to drink. I've had boiled water advisories in the state that I live in. So it's still an issue today. Stuff still happens. And understanding and having our audience to understand how it could affect them, but that there are solutions. There are solutions out there and there's people behind those, that help us to ensure water quality, not just for our local areas, but across the world. We have laboratories. Right, Denton, across the world?

Denton Slovacek:

Oh yeah.

Stacey Flax:

That have equipment of ours in them.

Denton Slovacek:

How we've evolved. Again, we started out with, "Here's the test, here's the answer." But Hach has moved so much further than that. So data management. So with online continuous process instrumentation, for an example, being able to track all that data, to be really to understand, not only what happens in this moment, the snapshot, but a whole video of that water quality, what's going on, the data showing you, minute to minute, what is going on with the water quality and all the data management, whether we're using digital sensors, how we're storing that data, how we're manipulating that data. That's all part of Hach's solution now, that we do. It's more than just testing that water. It's also providing a full solution, how to interpret the water analysis, how to really track what's going on.

Stacey Flax:

And so, our audience, including myself, I think it's easy to say that we're always going to have water. Water's out there, but there's only so much water, drinking water, potable water. There's only so much. And we're using the same water today, that the dinosaurs used. So taking that into consideration, it almost gets a little... We want to make sure that we have, as citizens, the tools and the knowledge to help protect our water resources. So if you could give some, I guess you could say, some advice on what I could do, my kids could do. Because that's one thing the younger generation is really excited about learning what they can do to help protect our environments. So if there's anything that you would say to them on how to make changes or be proactive, so that their grandkids have clean water.

Denton Slovacek:

Yeah, I think, first, we take to heart... And as an example, what we're doing, I'm an industrial application development manager, and one of the main goals of most industries, nowadays, is, how do we reuse the water that we've just used in our process? So maybe we've purified this water and then, we've used it in the process. Now how can we, instead of putting that back out to wastewater, how can we clean that water up and reuse it? And so, it's all a matter of stewardship. So if you're teaching your children, "do you need to run a shower for 30 minutes?" Or is 15 minutes enough? Does the lawn have to be that green? Does it have to take that much water?" All of those different things. Just being more aware that water quality changes every time you use it and not for the better. And sooner or later, someone else is going to use that water and they're going to have to clean it up. And we just keep trying to recycle the water the best we can. But being a good steward of the water, not using more than you truly need.

Stacey Flax:

So we've talked a lot about the past, how it's evolved to the present. So what does the future look like, in your opinion, the future of water quality?

Denton Slovacek:

It's going to be more solution based. So in the case of future of water quality, there's going to be a lot more work on desalination of salt water, to produce more drinking water, in many cases.

Stacey Flax:

So that's kind of goes back to your statement about reuse.

Denton Slovacek:

That's about reuse. From the standpoint of our company, what that really means is developing more and more products that really solve the issues of being able to monitor the water real time to really understand what's going on with that water. Real time control of treatment. So using analytical instrumentation to actually look at the water and actually help make the decisions how to control that. That's already in place and it's going to become more and more important, but just the overall managing water quality more closely. And that's where Hach continues to strive to bring to our customers those kind of technologies that really allow them the correct insights on what's going on with their water right now. What happened 30 minutes ago? Or a day ago? Helping them predict what's going to be going on with that water in the future.

Stacey Flax:

So going back to Clifford and Kitty Hach, interesting fact.

Denton Slovacek:

Yes.

Stacey Flax:

Is that their birthday's on the same day, right?

Denton Slovacek:

Yep.

Stacey Flax:

And somebody, if she was still alive, would have a big birthday coming up.

Denton Slovacek:

Yep. In October, Kitty would be 100 years old in October.

Stacey Flax:

Wow.

Denton Slovacek:

Fantastic lady. Probably one of the greatest people I've ever met. Well, both Clifford and Kitty. Kitty had a fantastic personality, great speaker in front of a crowd. Great pilot. Flew with her many, many times.

Stacey Flax:

Pilot?

Denton Slovacek:

She was a pilot. Yeah, it's interesting. Her name was Kitty Hach, right? So we always laughed about that. But Kitty was a long time pilot. Often flew us to different places, when we're meeting with customers. She was a great pilot, enjoyed time with her.

Stacey Flax:

Talk about service. She flew you places.

Denton Slovacek:

Oh sure.

Stacey Flax:

Interesting. Interesting. So that is quite the story, Denton. Over the years, we've talked about water quality, the evolution. So what about your evolution? What's the next step for you?

Denton Slovacek:

Very excited about moving more and more into ultra pure water. Because when we get into making green hydrogen with the membrane methods, that requires very, very pure water, semiconductors, the power industry for steam all is very heavy into ultrapure water. So in that situation, you're measuring elements and minerals that are almost not there. You're measuring in the level, we call, parts per billion and...

Stacey Flax:

Parts per billion?

Denton Slovacek:

Parts per billion. Being able to measure that is quite the challenge. It's harder to measure pure water than it is to measure dirty water.

Stacey Flax:

So to clarify, parts per billion for someone, give me an example of that. At what level is parts per billion? Because it sounds very, very tiny. Is it as tiny as it sounds?

Denton Slovacek:

Well, if you think of a paper clip, a paper clip weighs one gram. So if we cut that paper clip into a thousand pieces, each piece would be a milligram. If I had that one piece in a liter, a quart of water, that would be a part per million. If I took one of those little pieces and cut that into a thousand pieces. And one of those, which is a millionth of a gram, into a liter of water, that's a part per billion. So we're talking about an infinitesimal small amount, that's very, very, very, very low, but critical in many, many things, being able to measure that accurately. And so, that's what I'm interested in.

Stacey Flax:

That's incredible. And it's almost hard. I like the example that you just gave, because it was hard for me to think about that. I remember when I first entered the water industry, from a municipal side, listening to someone talk about a big, we have a big lake in our area and talking about taking an eyedropper and dropping one drop of water into that big lake. And that's the amount of clean water that we have. And that's it.

Denton Slovacek:

That's it. It's all a mindset that you give to children. Maybe that leaving on the water extra few seconds doesn't really matter to them, in that short term. But the mindset of water is important. That's the critical part that we train our children with.

Stacey Flax:

And water is important, because water sustains life. And if we want life to continue to sustain on this planet that we have, we need to protect that resource. It's a finite, valuable resource.

Denton Slovacek:

Our waste water is someone else's source water. So we have to keep that in mind. And every time we use water, the water quality goes down. And so, it's going to have to be treated to bring the water quality back. So it's all a matter of treating water with respect.

Stacey Flax:

Treating it with respect and understanding that, as you mentioned, it is recycled. I live in area in upper South Carolina, where we have a water reservoir. We pulled the water directly from that, and then, as it gets closer and goes down the state to get to the coast, it's recycled multiple times. And technically, the water here today, the dinosaurs had some sort of footprint on us. So it's kind of cool. How it all comes back around and evolves.

Denton Slovacek:

The water cycle.

Stacey Flax:

Water cycle. All right. Well, thank you so much for taking the time today to talk to us about the evolution of water and the evolution of our organization. And hopefully, we will talk back to you soon.

Denton Slovacek:

It's my pleasure. Thank you.

Stacey Flax:

Thank you.